06/22/05: For my first entry, thought
I'd write a little about what this project is about. Here on the
Thugs' site, I advocate the use and maintenance of older systems for normal
"contemporary" tasks. My motto is "everything
was state of the art once", and so a LOT of information and software
are available for older machines, whether free or inexpensive. So
really, there's no excuse why older systems aren't still being used in
everyday life. It always amazes me when I hear someone say "That
computer is so old it's useless" about a perfectly good system.
The problem is with the USERS,
folks. As a self-proclaimed "Power
User", I've always bragged that I could use any personal computer,
modern or otherwise, to do my daily work, such as word processing, email,
accounting, maintaining lists, and even surfing the Web. Well, this
project is essentially me "putting my money where my mouth is".

Starting July 1st, 2005, I will use my newest acquisition,
a TRS-80 Model 4P, exclusively for the entire summer. Yup, nothing
but the 4P until the official "First Day of Fall", the Autumnal Equinox.
Which, incidentally, falls on September 22nd.

06/23/05:Powered
the machine up for it's first test this evening. It went marginally
well. I spent much of the evening trying to write TRS-80 disks on
my PC (aka "Luxembourg") and met with total success. However, the
4P has some video problems when booting, which I have since learned means
the 80 column Model 4 display has lost calibration. When I have a
bit of time this weekend, I'll adjust the potentiometer inside the unit.

06/24/05: Took the night off to repair a
computer for a friend of the family. And to have a few pints of Guinness.

06/25/05: Felt the urge to tackle the video
problem. After nearly an HOUR trying to get the thing apart (there
were two screws inside
the bloody monitor housing that hold the front bezel in place!), I managed
to find the potentiometer (or PLL or whatever the Hell it's called) and
adjusted it with a tool of my own design ( a cap from a ball-point pen,
stem bent 90 degrees and sharpened with a utility knife)... beats trying
to slide the motherboard out a few inches and fighting with cables that
aren't designed to stretch too far! Put the unit back together et
le voila! perfectly good non-gate-array Model 4P!

I played around with LS-DOS 6.3.1 and TRS-DOS 6.2.0 a
bit, just to familiarize myself with the OS. I've made myself a disk
with FastTerm II v3.45 so I can try to null-modem into my *nix box tomorrow
or Monday.

06/26/05: I didn't do too much today.
I downloaded a few files to be transferred to proper disks, as well as
a few PDFs(manuals) and text files (with tips & tricks) that I figure
I'm going to need...

Sundays, I think, are going to be days of rest.
No computer related stuff other than website updates, unless, of course,
Slam and I find some pieces of equipment for sale... in which case, we
may need to surf the web or check the newsgroups for info (I'll be using
the 4P, of course).